Coroner Issues Warning After Eco-Friendly Straw Kills Woman Volume 90%
By C. Douglas Golden
Published July 14, 2019 at 12:42am
A retired jockey is dead in the United Kingdom after a freak accident involving an eco-friendly product and a sudden collapse, the U.K. Sun reported.
Elena Struthers-Gardner, 60, was killed by a reusable metal straw when she collapsed onto it in her home in the southern coastal town of Poole last November.
A coroner’s inquest found that the straw, which was attached to what the Sun described as a “mason-jar style drinking glass with a screw-top lid,” pierced her left eye and penetrated her brain.
Mandy Struthers-Gardner, the retired jockey’s wife, described finding her on the floor in the kitchen on Nov. 22, 2018, making “unusual gurgling sounds.”
“Her glass cup was lying on the floor still intact and the straw was still in the jar,” Struthers-Gardner said.
“I noticed the straw was sticking into her head. I called 999 and requested an ambulance.
“While I was on the phone, Lena appeared to have stopped breathing. The lady on the phone asked me to turn her over.
“I slid the glass off the straw and turned her over. I could see the straw had gone through her left eye.”
The jockey was apparently prone to collapses since a riding accident when she was 21, which often left her falling over “like a sack of potatoes,” according to Struthers-Gardner. She was also dependent on alcohol for her pain, but the coroner’s inquest noted that none was in her system at the time.
Both the coroner and Elena’s wife insisted that care needed to be taken with the instruments.
“I just feel that in the hands of mobility challenged people like Elena, or children, or even able-bodied people losing their footing, these [straws] are so long and very strong,” Struthers-Gardner said.
“Even if they don’t end a life they can be very dangerous.”
“Clearly great care should be taken when using these metal straws,” assistant coroner Brendan Allen told the Daily Echo.
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Poster Comment:
Doo doo happens.